No matter what happens here, they’ve shown heart and my god are they fitter this year.

I suspect I’ll be telling the Ben Brereton Diaz story for years to come. What a player he’s turned out to be.

Wharton has a niggle. Tweaked in the cup, then again in training. Phillips has done training to be in the first 11.

One things for sure, I liked that Nyambe could fill in at centre back. That was especially useful. Imagine if Scott Wharton had picked up a knock in training, say yesterday, and we only had Ayala fit to play centre back for a clash with WBA?

It’s a game of opinions isn’t it! I’ve seen Brittain play twice for us and probably a couple of times for Barnsley. He never especially stood out against Barnsley, but has played well in his two games for us. Not exceptionally, but well. My judgement so far - which is reserve the right to change later - is if we’re playing four at the back then Nyambe was more suited. If we’re playing a wing back then Brittain looks more suited. Nobody knows the numbers, so all of this is based on them both costing the same.

Agreed, Haaland captain on FPL. Over KDB. No pressure…

Some superb shirts in there. I’d happily wear a few of them!

I’m in the opposite camp. Sell Breo, give JDT 12 months to assess the squad and the youngsters, then give JDT and GB 12 months to fill in the easy gaps, then in year three throw the kitchen sink at it.

Do they still have all their big lads? We played them a couple of years (?) ago and it looked like there wasn’t a player in their side under 6 ft 4 and 15 stone. Their central midfielder scored a belting volley from about 25 yards. They where miles better than us then.

Very very early doors gents. The first 11 is good, but I think if you had the squad in front of you, you’d say we’re a few injuries or suspensions away from trouble in: Keeper - Kaminski great, the rest poor Right Back - Brittain great, the rest poor Centre Back - Ayala great, Wharton good, Carter unproven but potential. Left Back - Pickering good enough, Edun I’m still not convinced Central Midfield - Trav and Bucko are great, Morton could be good. Attackers - covered Strikers - not convinced by Gallagher or Vale We can’t have a good backup for every position, obviously. But I’d worry especially if we got long term injuries to Kaminski, Brittain, Ayala, Pickering, Travis or Buckley… and we would still need a striker on top.

Based on what I’ve seen, our six-fingered neighbours are doing the classic ‘recently relegated but too good for this league’ approach. They will have some success and look great against some teams, but generally this approach won’t work over the course of a season. They need some experienced heads and battlers ASAP. Ironically there’s a chance that approach would have worked in the Prem with a decent funding commitment. They needed Kompany then and need Dyche now.

He’s so refreshing after Mowbray. This isn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows, there will be bad times, especially with a young team. I hope we can stick behind him when that does happen. Interesting that his first conversation was with Suhail, even more interesting to hear Suhail now has a job title. Don’t let him get too involved, Gregg.

Now now, if we wanted the thread to be ruined me and RevBlue would start debating. As a side note if you mention ANY reference to politics outside of the WDWY section it comes with a warning. Consider this your red flag, danger ahead…

I absolutely love JDT.

I thought it was clear with the first sentence “story telling” and the ridiculousness of the ending with us selling a player for a loss and Mowbray being reinstated as the manager that it was intended to be a light hearted over dramatisation. That doesn’t however change that fact that when clubs sell/give away players they often (not always) have to pay them a % of their wages (see: ‘leaving fee’, ‘loyalty bonus’, or ‘some of the transfer fee’), which are all the same thing, to agree to the deal. Unless the player submits a transfer request. When selling players we typically to pay this as the club are benefiting from a transfer fee for the player. When giving away players we typically pay this as it works out cheaper than letting them stay.

I agree with the above.

Yes I think he’s still on the same deal as originally - the 390K is based on 7.5K / week… which feels realistic to me? How much do you think Arma is on, who made the same move? I don’t think a good agent would see Southampton as a good move for an international player, that scored 20+ goals last season, with 12 months on his deal. There’s plenty of risks: 1) They’re going down - so he’s going to have a relegation reduction on whatever contract he signs. 2) He is going to struggle to shine in a team due to lose each week. 3) Any interested club is 12 months away from not having to pay a fee. He will have more options in 12 months and would likely earn more because there’s no transfer fee involved.

A 4 year deal: Increases the transfer fee Increases the cost of option 2.

With respect Rev, you’re posts are what you think happens. I’m basing mine on how I’m told transfers happen by players and the earlier mentioned book, which explains all of this. Transfers are the Wild West and if a club is benefiting financially, a good agent will even the playing field. I’m happy for you to think I’m wrong, it’s easier that way.

OK, let’s work with this as well. You're GB. The 17M figure (which doesn’t exist, but let’s say it does) is bid, accepted and Southampton can now negotiate terms with Brereton. I’m Ben’s agent. 48 hours later, I come back and say we have agreed terms with Southampton but will only finalise the deal if Rovers pay him the rest of his contract, 7.5K / week for 52 weeks, 390K. If you don’t accept the deal then we’re happy to wait and see if anyone else hits the 17M this season or, if not, will leave on a free next summer and look at our options. Do you: 1) call my bluff… get stuffed! If you want to leave we aren’t paying you 2) accept, pay the 390K, take the 16.6M and work with JDT to replace Ben. 3) Negotiate, will I accept 50%?

It’s all hypothetical, but I don’t think it’s an unlikely scenario at all. Ben has 12 months on his deal, in 1 years time the world is his oyster. Again, hypothetical - you’re Ben and Southampton have a bid accepted by Rovers. They’re trebling you’re wages, you’re on 30K a week on a 4 year deal. Do you accept? Because I don’t!

Probably, in reality, yes. I’m just using random numbers for the sake of it at this point to show how it works.

I’ll simplify and make it easier… If Ben can leave Rovers generating 18M quid, despite his bumper new deal at his new club, Ben’s agent wants a ‘loyalty payment’ (otherwise known as some of his wages) from Rovers before they agree to the deal. That’s so little of a surprise to Rovers that when they approach Ben’s agent, they’ll put a figure (which will be negotiated) into the settlement which the agent won’t even need to ask for. Ben’s new contract at his new club has absolutely nothing to do with Rovers. It’s irrelevant. His transfer is worth 18M quid to Rovers, that is what’s relevant. Now of course Ben might want to join Sevilla so much, he tells his agent to get the deal done even if he takes a hit on his ‘loyalty payment’. Which isn’t unheard of, but a good agent will try and get it him anyway.

You’re not reading my posts - 20M transfer fee 2M for Forest, 10% of the transfer fee 6M to replace him Rovers set to gain 12M. The ‘loyalty bonus’ you’re describing are his wages. He is set to earn X if he stays to the end of his deal, so you make a concession and pay him Y to leave now with everybody’s blessing.

That’s exactly my point, they can’t just say “Ben here’s 2M in cash, disappear.” but what they can do is pay them a settlement on their wages… like I started by saying!